Discoloration
by Ryuka Hayashi
Summary: Oneshot. Spanner X OC. Read at your own discretion.


**Disclaimer:** Amano Akira-san owns KHR not me

* * *

I'm sure you're all thinking, "why do this" ? Then I'll tell you why.

- Because I was pissed at what happened when I woke up and what I did afterwards.

- Because I was pissed at the enormity of Spanner/Tsuna and Spanner/Shoichi and other effing crack fics I found while searching Spanner/Reader fics. This is why I will **_NEVER_** bow down to yaoi. Also, this is dedicated to all my rivals of Spanner-kun, who, are in the exact same spot as I am. I just want some interaction that is not yaoi for once. Even if it isnt inclined to romance, its okay as long as they have just some sane interaction.

* * *

Cold.

Definitely ice cold.

Just the thought of even taking a step out of this kotatsu is like signing a contract to be one of those icicle displays in the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri. Dont know how to even go there.

At times like these I want to go pack my bags and leave for the south to see Mr. Sun again. But God knows I'm lazy as hell. Its even considered a miracle that I got a well paid job after 8 months of being a NEET after high school... Damn. Self-evaluation time over. Gotta get ready for work.

Combing her copper hair while getting out of the kotatsu proved to be more exasperating as the warmth slowly receded from her lower torso. Weather reports said it would snow heavily at night. Cant snow that hard when I get back, she thought as she zipped up her green discolored parka, and with one swipe, took her slingbag and walked out of the room.

"Always dressing up like a tomboy eh, Hayashi?" My coworker, Takkun, just hurled the first thing in his mind straight at me as soon as I set three steps inside the studio. Flinching at his statement wont do wonders anyway. "Please, it's just a parka, Takeda-san." I reply with a ready-made smile while unbuttoning the said clothing. He laughs heartily as he leans on his chair a bit. "Iya, iya... But seriously, women your age should be having at least boyfriends by now!" The smile falters a bit, but retracted back nicely. Boyfriends? In real life? Hell no. I dont need douchebags to clutter up my life. This isnt high school. This is real life. And as far as I know, getting a stable job was the topmost priority.

I was about to give him a reply when Rina-nee came bolting out the restroom and threw a toilet paper roll at the back of Takkun's head. "TAKKI! How dare you encourage my apprentice to elope?!" "I wasn't encouraging her!" Takkun said while rubbing the back of his head. "Tch. Then why are you giving suggestions to her, huh?! When finally the female population here escalated then you waltz in and try to- " Oh God there they go again. I detach myself from their bickering and carefully walk towards my desk without alerting them, hoping they continue their shenanigans until the the rest come, especially the director. God save the director.

I'll be brief on what my job is at the moment. I work as an assitant visual artist on a game that we're developing. Its a mecha first erson shooter videogame to be precise. Though I really dont understand why there's mecha when the plot revolves on the fps but, oh well. Rina-nee is the person I am apprenticed to and showed me the basics two months ago. I think I can spot my mistakes... I think. I'll just wait for the director while scanning my works. Clothes are really a hassle on a bum like me since I dont really know how they work but I think I can get away with the hair today.

The brunette was about to open her AVR when the sound of a door opening was heard. She looked up hoping it was the director, only to be greeted by fake bushel of daffodil colour that eerily resembled the sun who fled to the south. "Ossu, Spanner", Fuminatsu Takeda greeted him.

The other coworkers greeted him while he exchanged pleasantries as well. Seeing as I'm not the type to greet people, I just shut up. Who would even hear my voice anyway? The chair next to me? Which just happened to be that blonde's seat? Who just... sat down... crud. "Morning." His emerald orbs paused to meet my eyes for just half a second then turned away to his temporary desk. Now that he's said the first word, its my turn to continue, right? Right? Why do people always want to strike up a conversation when the person doesn't even know how to handle communication? "Good morning, Spanner-san." A nod. Thank you. Thank you for putting up with my insane pleas even if you dont use telepathy. Thank you.

The director arrived shortly after and instructed us to continue our work. He looks cold as well. His hair definitely says bed hair all over it. But the director wouldnt be the director without his, albeit dorkish charms. After settling down, the air of professionality took over the room and all at once, every personal computer lit up to the tune of the mouse in its rhythmic pattern. Except for one.

Spanner was tearing off the wrapper of a wrench-shaped lollipop using his mouth and was reading some of the mangas the director lent to him a few days ago. I don't understand. I really don't. Why would the director hire someone who just reads manga and nothing else? I know he has connections... but still. 12 hours would fly by and Spanner would either be reading or fall asleep. Watching the hours tick by was a habit of mine when I first started working but now I'd just look at the window outside to know what time it is. Unfortunately, I stayed a bit behind since I drew the other eye horribly. Who doesnt experience this anyway?

"Hayashi-san." No response. "Hayashi-san." Finally the brunette woke up from her snap, marks of the keyboard keys obviously patterned the left side of her face. "W... Wha..." She muttered, still half-asleep. "You were asleep when I came back from a call." Ryuka Hayashi was slowly gaining conscience as she rubbed the sleep of her eyes. Spanner Lockwood eased back off her cubicle and looked at his phone. "I was gone for about 30 minutes... I guess." His eyes focused on her once more. "The rest left already." Well, this got her attention.

"H-Huh? Since when?! D-Did the director saw I was sleeping? Oh no..." God help me please. Please let it be not one of those days where you ordered a milk shake then got a vanilla shake instead. I was really scared of what might've happened when Spanner said, "Dont worry about it. Its an hour past the curfew now." Then it hit me. "So you're telling me its 9 in the evening now?" He nodded. "So..." I look at him, a bit uncertain. "No one woke me up except you, Spanner-san?" Another nod along with click of his tongue as his lollipop went to another side of his mouth. Despair crept towards me. What did I do wrong that even Rina-nee didn't even wake me up?

"S-Sorry and thank you for waking me up, Spanner-san." A nervous chuckle unexpectedly escaped my lips. "I must've wasted your time..." Despair is eating me now. "Don't worry about it." He lugged his backpack over his shoulders and adjusted the left strap longer. I guess he's leaving already. I look back at my desk and see a clutter of sketches piled across the PC, the drawing tablet almost covered by it. Looking back at the computer after moving the mouse proved that I did really screw up the other eye. The scene where I was cleaning it up turned out to be a dream... And I thought this kind of crap only works in movies.

"Are you all right?" Spanner's sudden question jolted me out of my reverie and I hurriedly saved and closed the project, arranging the mess of papers and stuffing them to an unknown black folder located at the bottom pile. "Yes, Spanner-san, I'll just clean up these papers." And hope that tomorrow the director wont be mad at me. "I'll finish this up, so you can go ahead Spanner-san." I said with a smile. I turned away and started fixing everything on top my desk. After a few seconds of carelessly stuffing papers everywhere, I realized that he didn't move an inch.

"S-Spanner-san?" She carefully inquired. The blonde didn't respond for a second or two. "I'll wait for you. It's this late already." "I-It's okay!" Her fast reaction surprised Spanner. "I can't trouble you anymore Spanner-san! I'm sure you have matters to attend to and I'll just be slowing you down. I can still walk home at this hour. You can go ahead, Spanner-san." She waited for his response in bated breath. Making others feel at ease in leaving her alone was her specialty anyway, so she was pretty confident at least.

"Okay." He turned at his heel and walked out of the room. I sighed with relief as I cleared the papers away and threw out some junk and as soon as I heard the main door being closed, I scrambled to get my slingbag and parka. I turned off the lights in the room and walked to the main door while putting on the coat. I bowed to the security guard and wished him good work as I exited the building. Imagine the shock on my face as I registered what was waiting outside for me.

Snow. I forgot. It was supposed to snow heavily tonight. I guess that was around 7pm or so. I took a step to test how deep the snow had gotten and out of the corner of my eye I saw another one that was waiting outside. Spanner. Overcoming the initial shock of the snow, I stared at him. His golden strands obscured his eyes in the semi darkness, his breath turning into icy clouds that vanished before it could even leave his pale lips. A faded blue scarf was wrapped around his neck that had accumulated a bit of snow. All in all, my eyes never left that spot above his chin that I didnt even notice that he had already acknowledged my presence.

"I... I..." And so, speech left me out cold in this situation. Though that wasn't new. Spanner walked towards me until he was only 3 steps away from me and I couldn't even tell of what he was about to do. All the while I kept telling myself to avert my gaze to that part of his face again cause its adding mental stress to my already damaged brain cells today. As if sensing my thoughts, he paused for a moment, then put the question, "Which way is your house?"

The walk to Ryuka's house was covered in snow and silence between the two. She understood why Spanner came to that conclusion - she told him to go ahead not go home - which was a mistake on her part. But still... he didn't have to take it TOO literally, she thought. After an estimated 7 minutes without any conversation at all, she willed all of her confidence into one, just one question directed to him.

"Spanner-san what will you do at the studio?" Effing hell this had to be that one question I thought of. Why can't it be 'Spanner is your house that way too?' or 'Spanner isnt it cold?' or 'Spanner what did you have for lunch?' or some stupid crap just to pass the time. Gog dammit. He slowed his walking so that he can match my pace and didn't reply for a good minute or so. I was about to give up hoping for an answer when he finally spoke. "The others didn't tell you?"

... Come to think of it they didn't say what position Spanner-san was when he first joined us. "N-No..." He gave a side glance look at me then looked forward. "I'll be the one creating Sega Nexus Xl in celebration of the launching of Nexus Rebirth, that is, the game you're working on", he said nonchalantly but somehow, with a slight glimmer in his eyes... or maybe it was just snow. "... But Ishinori-san is the one who manages the 3D rigging of the mechas right?"

And now he did the thing again where his mouth just makes a clicking sound and the lollipop swerves to the other direction, but with a slight smirk added. "Ishinori-san is on the 3d scale while mine is on the real-time scale" My eyes widened at his answer and I walked even slower to register what he was saying. "W-Wait, wait... So that means... YOU'RE GONNA BUILD A HUGE SEGA NEXUS LIKE GUNDAM RX-78?!"

Ryuka covered her mouth in embarrassment. "You know that's impossible to create by just one person, Hayashi-san." He smiled at her, somewhat thawing the frozen atmosphere between them and making the brunette feel comfortable despite her sudden outburst. "I'll be constructing a human-sized version of it but it can perform actions as well", he replied. "Are you gonna build him with the Nebulus Gear on?" "Probably not. Shoichi said to create the basic version of it."

Wow. He just said the director's name nonchalantly as if he was a high school bud or something. But... I don't want to ruin the conversation now. He looks so animated when talking about his robots. "So when will you start building it, Spanner-san?" I inquired. "When I get the materials from Shoichi". I was puzzled. "But you can get the materials yourself if you want." He looks at me once again then looks up at the falling snow. "It'd be easy but Shoichi is handling all the expenses in this studio. Last time I picked my own materials he got mad and dismantled the almost finished model I put up." He smirked.

"The director did that?" I couldn't believe it. Sure, I've seen the director panic but never have I seen him so mad to dismantle an model before. "Yeah." Spanner didn't say anything afterwards but it was just good timing that my apartment was already a few steps away. I see some lights still open on one of the apartment rooms and smell someone's cooking.

I turned to Spanner. "This is where I'm staying at, Spanner-san." I stepped towards the house then faced him again. "If you wont mind, would you like to have tea? As a thank you for walking me home as this hour." I... was being polite right? Is this how you thank people who walked you home? Cause this is the first time a guy escorted me home. Spanner just smiled. "It's okay, I have to catch the last train before 10." And then without warning, "B-But you'll come over some time, right? I cant let you off without a proper thank you Spanner-san."

...

What the effing hell did I just say? Goodbye World. I will succumb to the fires of embarrassment and will never be seen again. Too many embarrassing things happened in just a day... Oh God, he's looking at me weirdly, I knew it, he's mocking me. No. Why. Why must this happen?

"I'll take up that offer in the future then." He looked at me with a smile. "I'll be off then." He bowed then started to leave. "T-THANK YOU VEry much for walking me home, Spanner-san!" I said with a bow reaching close to my stomach. I didn't see what he did. Maybe just waved or nodded, but I think he saw my gesture before he left.

Trudging up the rickety staircase to Room 307 and diving head first to the kotatsu after switching it on did nothing to quell the embarrasment in my face. Oh Ryuka just what the hell did you end up to?

END

*Yeah this is just like an introduction, but my mood lightened up so I have no need to create another fic.*


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